Alibaba ready for possible trade war with US: Vice chairman Joseph Tsai

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba on Thursday said that the company is ready for a possible trade war with the United States, adding that it would not only survive the fight but will also thrive. This comes after the company reported its total earnings for the year.

"If US goods become too expensive due to tariffs, Chinese consumers can shift to domestic producers or imports from other parts of the world," CNN Money quoted Alibaba (BABA) Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai, as saying to analysts during an earnings conference call.

However, Tsai clarified that Alibaba does not want a trade war, as this would further deteriorate trade talks. He also said that the e-commerce giant would not face any difficulty in finding other markets for its products if the US becomes a tougher place for business.

"In terms of our international expansion, the world is a big place. We have made substantial progress in emerging markets like Southeast Asia and South Asia as these markets are ripe for us to add more consumers into our ecosystem," he said.

Paytm receives final tranche from $445 mn funding from SoftBank, Alibaba

Paytm Mall has received the final tranche of its $445 million (about Rs 3,000 crore) funding from SoftBank and Alibaba, a move that will give the online shopping venture of Paytm more financial muscle to take on giants like Flipkart and Amazon. In April, Paytm Mall had closed $445 million funding round from SoftBank Investment Holdings and Alibaba.com Singapore E-commerce. According to the latest documents filed with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), Paytm E-commerce -- which runs Paytm Mall -- has issued a total of 237,705 shares to SB Investment Holdings (UK) and Alibaba.com Singapore E-commerce as part of the fourth tranche. The issuance of 211,293 shares to SB Investment Holdings and 26,412 shares to the Alibaba entity was approved by the Board of Paytm E-commerce on June 6, 2018, the documents added.

Alibaba-backed Paytm tops $29-bn mark in gross transaction run-rate

Digital payments major Paytm on Friday said it has crossed an annual gross transaction run-rate of $29 billion, driven by growth across mobile payments and bank transfers through its platform.

A Paytm spokesperson said the company is witnessing strong growth in both mobile payments usage as well as transactions through bank transfers, which has been recently introduced.

"We are already seeing a GTV (gross transaction value) run rate of $29 billion. We are currently logging about one billion transactions per quarter and we aim to double it this year," the spokesperson added.

GTV refers to the total transaction value through the platform in a given time period.

Jack Ma's Alibaba acquires Pakistan e-commerce retail firm Daraz

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba on Wednesday said that it had purchased leading Pakistani online retailer Daraz, continuing its overseas expansion by gaining a foothold in the growing South Asian consumer market.

The move came after Alibaba announced in March a doubling of its investment in Southeast Asian e-commerce firm Lazada.

China is seeking closer economic ties with Asian neighbours including Pakistan through its Belt and Road initiative, a strategy to increase trade links that is led primarily by infrastructure projects.

Daraz, founded in 2012, was purchased from Rocket Internet, a Berlin-based incubator of online startups.

Its key markets are Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Nepal, claiming 30,000 sellers and 500 brands on its platform, according to a statement by Alibaba.

Jack Ma urges Zuckerberg to 'fix' Facebook and to 'take it seriously'

Jack Ma, the billionaire co-founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, urged Mark Zuckerberg to tackle the growing criticism aimed at Facebook Inc. by regulators and users around the world, and “really take it seriously.”

China’s richest man and chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. on Monday weighed in on the controversy, calling on his fellow internet pioneer to “fix” a social network that had grown explosively over the past decade and a half. Asked at the Boao Forum about the Facebook furor, the billionaire started dismissing questions but then couldn’t help opining on the crisis facing the U.S. company.

Facebook’s shares have tumbled since the company disclosed in March that it may have shared the personal data of tens of millions of users with Cambridge Analytica, a research firm that helped elect President Donald Trump. Enraged users launched a #deletefacebook campaign and regulators around the world are investigating its handling of sensitive personal information.

“It is the time to fix it. It is the time for the CEO to really take it seriously. I think the problems will be solved,” Ma told delegates to the annual conference on the sunny island of Hainan.

Alibaba shares tank after margins decline, market value dips $30 billion

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd shares fell the most in 18 months and cut its market valuation by about $30 billion after investments in brick-and-mortar assets and digital media squeezed profit margins in the December quarter.
The Chinese e-commerce giant reported revenue that topped analyst estimates and raised its growth forecast for the 12 months ending in March to 55 to 56 percent. But operating margin shrank to 31 percent in the last quarter from 39 percent a year earlier.

Shares fell 5.9 percent in New York trading, the sharpest decline since June 2016.
Alibaba will also buy 33 percent of Ant Financial, helping to clear the way for an initial public offering of the Chinese payments giant. While no cash is changing hands, Ant Financial will end royalty payments to Alibaba that were worth more than $300 million last fiscal year.

Alibaba says profit up 132% in 'outstanding' quarter amid soaring sales

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba said on Thursday that soaring sales fuelled a 132 per cent increase in net profit in what it called an "outstanding" quarter, as the firm raised its expectations for full-year revenue growth.

China's biggest e-commerce company said net profit for the three months ending September 30 reached 17.67 billion yuan, (USD 2.67 billion), up from 7.62 billion yuan in the same period of 2016.

"We had an outstanding quarter," Chief Financial Officer Maggie Wu said in a statement.

"This quarter we delivered excellent results, with overall revenue growth of 61 per cent demonstrating the robust momentum in our core commerce business and across the Alibaba economy."

Alibaba said revenue growth in the quarter was fuelled in large part by technological innovations including the app for its key Taobao online shopping, which it said has a growing capability to anticipate and suggest shopping options to its hundreds of millions of users.

Revenues in the quarter, the second in Alibaba's fiscal year, came it at 55.1 billion yuan, topping an analyst estimate of 52 billion yuan compiled by Bloomberg News.
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Amazon vs Alibaba: The R&D spending war

Alibaba this week announced a big push to do more research and development, ploughing $15 billion into new innovation over the next three years. Here’s how that stacks up to what Amazon is already doing:

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Tencent, Alibaba now dominate online food delivery space in China

Last month, Baidu sold its O2O food delivery service, Baidu Waimai, to Ele.me. This means that now, the Alibaba-backed Ele.me and Tencent-backed Meituan dominate the space.

This deal speaks volumes about the state of Chinese internet in 2017. Here are the three big trends:

Convergence is continuing

China’s internet giants- Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu- are continuing to move into each others’ spaces. This is a big change from a few years ago when Tencent mostly stayed in gaming and messaging, Alibaba in e-commerce, and Baidu in search.

As Alibaba and Tencent now dwarf Baidu in market cap, the latter’s exit from food delivery implies that it’s tired of being caught between much larger competitors.

China-specific solutions weigh more

The Chinese O2O food delivery trend created an army of delivery people on scooters. They race around streets, alleys, parks, and sidewalks and congregate outside storefronts and subways.

What all of these have in common is that they all offer China-specific solutions.

The Chinese market is so big that creative solutions in small niches can mean big businesses.
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Wall Street climbs as North Korea tension eases, S&P tops with 1.12% rise

Wall Street opened higher on Monday, with broad gains across sectors, as investor sentiment was lifted by easing tensions in the Korean peninsula after key US officials played down the risk of an imminent war with North Korea.

All the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, with S&P financial's 1.12 per cent rise leading the gainers.

Global stocks lost nearly $1 trillion last week after President Donald Trump warned North Korea that it would face "fire and fury" if it threatened the United States, leading to a war of words between Pyongyang and Washington.

However, US officials including National Security Adviser H R McMaster and CIA Director Mike Pompeo played down the risk on Sunday, while South Korea's president said resolving Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions must be done peacefully.

"Feels as though the North Korean tension seems to be abating a bit, with commentary coming out of China and the United States. But the situation seems to have de-escalated in the near term", said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich
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Now, Alibaba to create online system for house rentals in China

China's e-commerce giant Alibaba has signed an agreement with its home city government in Zhejiang province to use the company's technology to create an online system for house rentals.

The system will cover apartments put up for rent from all sources -- the government, individuals, real estate developers and agents, according to the agreement signed earlier this week.

People seeking rental housing in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang province, will be able to use the application and website created by Alibaba for every stage in the process, from searching for apartments to signing contracts and payment, state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.

"Information on apartments, user reviews, and credibility ratings of owners, renters and agents will all be shared," said Han Junqing, director of Hangzhou Real Estate Registration Center.

The smart house renting system, as it is called, will be supported by Alibaba's big data, online payment technology, and commerce credit system and can prevent fraudulent deals, sources with the government and Alibaba said.
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Alibaba's revenue to jump 45-48% this year: Jack Ma

China's Alibaba expects its revenue to expand by 45 to 48 percent in its fiscal year from April as more small businesses join its online community in search of sales, Executive Chairman Jack Ma said on Thursday.

Alibaba had revenue of $22.99 billion in its year to the end of March.

"Our revenue this year, we will still have 45-48 percent growth, the money comes from solving problems for others," Ma told hundreds of senior executives who filled a large ballroom in a five-star hotel to listen to him on his first visit to Africa.

Ma, who founded the Hangzhou-based e-commerce firm, said he would consider investing in Kenya after meeting young entrepreneurs and being impressed by the East African nation's broadband infrastructure.

"I was surprised by the speed of the Internet," he told the executives. He told a separate gathering at the University of Nairobi that the speed was faster than in some developed nations.

He said he would consider the investment opportunities he had seen in the country, and make a firm announcement at a later date, adding that the dozens of Chinese entrepreneurs who accompanied him had also been stirred by locals' drive to build businesses.

"They say it is very difficult to find another Jack Ma in China but today we found a lot of Jack Mas in Africa," he said.
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Alibaba joins big brands like Samsung, Sony, others to fight fake goods

Latest News -China's e-commerce giant Alibaba today joined hands with 20 brands to fight counterfeit goods through big data analysis after the US last month labelled the company as one of the world's largest destinations for fake goods.

The first "alliance to fight counterfeits with big data" was initiated by Alibaba in Hangzhou, capital of eastern China's Zhejiang Province, the company said.

Among the first 20 members of the alliance are Chinese and international brands, including Huawei, LV, Swarovski, Dulux, Samsung, Sony and Bioderma.

Alibaba said the move would make the fight against counterfeiting more powerful and transparent.

The move was backed by police authorities in many provinces across China.

"Counterfeiting is rampant in the global market these days, and it's increasingly difficult to eradicate bogus goods using traditional offline means," said Jessie Zheng, Alibaba Group's chief platform governance officer.

She said that Alibaba Group was(Read More)